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Thursday, April 15, 2010

First Aid: Oral Glucose Gel - Insta-glucose

This is the first post in a series of First Aid posts. At any paintball game/event there should always be several people who have first aid skills, and they should be reasonably prepared to deal with first aid situations. That being said, there isn't a whole lot out there to inform the paintball community on what to do in an emergency situation.

Today, the focus is on oral glucose gel, which is used to treat low blood sugar (diabetics, hypoglycemics). While recently dealing with a diabetic emergency, I was shocked to learn that the person whom I was treating had never heard of Insta-glucose (a brand of oral glucose gel), or oral glucose gel at all. This person was unprepared to deal with their diabetic emergency and had no immediate means of raising their blood sugar. Upon administration of the Insta-glucose, they immediately felt better, and went from being barely able to move to feeling great within the span of a couple of minutes.

Insta-glucose is readily available to the public, relatively cheap, and works wonders. If you're putting together a first aid kit, make sure some kind of oral glucose gel makes it in there. Paintball can be exhaustive and exciting, possibly leading to someone having low blood sugar, and failing to react in a timely manner to it. Administering the gel is as easy as having the person with low blood sugar squeeze the tube into their mouth. I'm told it tastes like cherry.